Mentors

Mentors

Chapter 3: Battle For Hogwarts

* * * * * * *

Professor Sprout emerged from her room near the Hufflepuff portrait hole with wand drawn. She was pulling her delicate green nightgown around her as she searched for the origin of the loud barking noise which had awakened her. As she passed the painting of fruit that marked the entrance to the kitchens, she noticed that the hidden door was ajar and a large pair of eyes stared out at her in abject fear. But there was nothing she could do for the poor house-elf right now; she had to find the source of the noise and deal with it before someone stumbled across a monster in the hallway. She moved carefully along the corridor keeping a keen eye and ear out for Fluffy, the three-headed dog, who must have gotten into the school somehow.

She climbed the stairs and opened the door into the main entrance hall. What she saw as she approached the entrance didn’t register at first. The darkness masked the true horror of the scene. The kindly, normally reserved, Professor let out a piercing scream as she recognized what it was that littered the entrance. Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Ernie Macmillan, and a number of other Hufflepuffs joined her out in the entrance hall below the main stairs. Most looked away from the terrible sight of human body parts strewn about the hall. Someone retched onto the stairs.

But their shared moment of horror didn’t last long as the giant oak front doors swung open and in walked a dozen Death Eaters followed by a similar number of dementors.

Professor Sprout immediately recognized the danger and was able to pick off one of the Death Eaters with a Stunning Spell, but the Hufflepuffs received back a volley of various spells which sent some of them flying into the stairs. Justin Finch-Fletchley took one square in the face. Ernie Macmillan was grazed, but managed to flee up the marble stairs with a handful of other Hufflepuff students.

The lead Death Eater commanded, “Capture as many students as you can. Let the dementors drain them and hold them in the Great Hall.”

“What about the house-elves, sir?” asked another.

“Don’t worry about them, Nott. They won’t take on dementors.”

Death Eaters and dementors raced up the stairs, some pursuing the fleeing Hufflepuffs, others heading toward Gryffindor Tower. A pair of dementors was stationed in the Slytherin hallway. Two more stood in the doorway leading into the Great Hall. The two remaining Death Eaters busied themselves moving the unconscious Professor Sprout and her students into the Great Hall.

Ernie and the four other Hufflepuffs who fled with him dashed up toward the Ravenclaw common room. They reached the end of the corridor on the seventh floor and banged on the portrait for help. The portrait figure screamed at them, desperately trying to get them to stop beating on him. Ernie heard the Death Eaters coming up the stairs. He knew they were trapped, so decided to just run for it. They streamed back out into the hallway overlooking the stairwell as two Death Eaters and four dementors reached the top step; the Death Eaters were somewhat out of breath. Ernie and his gang fled out along the corridor, but one first year was caught by a flying Stunner and he plummeted seven stories down to the bottom of the stairwell.

The Death Eaters pursued them toward the other side of the castle, trying to get the dementors to stay at the Ravenclaw corridor. But the dementors sensed excited, fresh souls, and could not be deterred from following their prey.

Professor Flitwick emerged from his seventh floor room and Luna Lovegood came out of the portrait hole to see what was making such a hideous racket. She and a number of fellow Ravenclaws reached the stairwell corridors along with Professor Flitwick just as another set of Death Eaters came up the stairs. Kevin Entwhistle bore the brunt of the Death Eaters’ attack as Flitwick fired back, but he just missed the head of one of his assailants, and was able to retreat back into the corridor. Luna and a half dozen other Ravenclaws, however, were standing out fully exposed in the hallway, cut off from the safety of their common room. They ran for it up toward one of the towers.

* * *

Professor McGonagall entered the Gryffindor common room to find over forty students huddled together, standing away from the windows, and looking wide-eyed up toward the ceiling. She almost got the question out of her mouth when painful screams shot down from one of the floors above.

“Who are they, Professor?” asked Natalie McDonald, trembling.

“What’s going on?” McGonagall asked with alarm as she drew her wand.

“Somebody’s trying to kill us, Professor!” Dennis Creevey shouted.

Dean Thomas suddenly emerged from the spiral staircase with Colin Creevey and most of the fourth years in tow. They slammed the door shut and turned to try to hold it closed. “They got Seamus! Those bastards killed Seamus!”

Colin, out of breath, explained, “Seamus tried to get us all out, and he held them off while we ran down here. They came in through the door at the top of the tower! I was sleeping and —”

BANG!

The door the boys had just come through shuddered and a number of students backed away. But Professor McGonagall was lightning quick. She barred the door with an Unbreakable Charm.

The harsh voices outside demanded they be allowed in. “You won’t be hurt, just open the door,” said the voice as he tried to force it in once more.

One of the windows then shattered as a curse came rushing into the common room. Students screamed.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown ushered the last of the girls down into the common room and Professor McGonagall sealed that door as well, even though it doesn’t lead to the roof.

Ginny Weasley, worrying where Ron, Harry, and Hermione were, opened the portrait hole to see if she could go get some help from another house when she saw two strange men stalking down the corridor followed by three dementors. She quickly closed the painting. Everyone in the common room heard the poor Fat Lady scream and flee the canvas as it was ripped to shreds. The hole in the wall then automatically sealed itself, not unlike the one in Diagon Alley.

“We’ve taken over the entire castle,” said the voice from the other side of the stairwell door. “There is nothing you can do. Open the door; you won’t be harmed.”

“Never! No way!” a number of students yelled together.

The stairwell was quiet for a moment and then the door started to undulate, buckling under the stress. One of the Death Eaters was trying to force it with magic, but McGonagall reinforced the door with another charm. The door calmed down and stood firm, for now.

* * *

Pansy Parkinson peeked her head out the Slytherin entrance only to see two dementors waiting at the end of the dungeon corridor. She wisely resealed the wall and told the others what she had seen. Nobody seemed to know where Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were, however. And no one had seen Professor Snape since dinner.

* * *

The Gryffindor common room was nervous but quiet. The only noises they had heard lately came from the men on the spiral stairs trying to convince them to open the door. Outside in the corridor their compatriots attempted to get the portrait hole, which was now a solid wall of thick stone, to reappear.

The silence was broken by a sudden shrill scream that came from above. Like a speeding train racing by, a witch, engulfed in fire, fell from the sky by the broken window.

“DRAGON!” a Death Eater near the top of the tower yelled as he streaked down the spiral stairs. “DRAGON!” Both men pounded frantically on the wooden door as a heavy thump landed on the tower roof.

“OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE —”

McGonagall and the rest of the Gryffindors heard a whoosh of liquid fire speed all the way down the spiral staircase. Flames licked around the edges of the secure door while pitiful screams and moans emanated from the other side. Some liquid, still burning, seeped under the door and Dean stomped on it with his shoe to try to put it out. A sickly sweet burned smell permeated around the doorframe.

They all just stared at the door. Moments later, more banging on the stairwell door shook the Gryffindors out of their stupor. “Open up! It’s Neville! Open the door!”

“Neville?” Dean repeated.

“Open the damned door!”

Professor McGonagall released her spell and Neville fell into the room trying to get away from the intense stench. And now even those standing on the other side of the common room got a whiff. Nauseated looks circled the room as students put their hands in front of their faces to try to block the smell. Frank and Alice Longbottom and Min also came down through the door and Dean quickly closed it. Ginny went to open the rest of the windows so the room could air out.

Even though she had gotten their owl, McGonagall was still very surprised to see them. “Frank … Alice …”

“Did you get the letter, Professor?” Neville asked as he tried to steady his parents, neither of who seemed particularly in touch with reality at the moment.

Professor McGonagall had a difficult time explaining. “Well, yes, but … no one wanted to believe it … I tried to —”

“We don’t have time for this,” said Min. “The school is still crawling with Death Eaters and dementors. How do we get out of this room?”

“Like this.” Lavender was about to open the portrait hole but …

“No, wait!” Ginny yelled. “There are two Death Eaters and three dementors outside!”

“Can you deal with dementors, Professor?” Min quickly asked McGonagall.

“Yes,” she responded, still looking somewhat bewildered at the unexpected appearance of the Longbottoms.

“Very good. I’ll take the Death Eaters; you attack the dementors. Ready? Okay, open the wall.”

Lavender spoke the password and the stones rearranged themselves, opening a hole in the wall. Min dived through the hole like a gymnast, performed a front roll to his feet, turned, and sent the Death Eaters flying into the corners of the hallway with a pair of Stunning Spells. He then stepped out of the way of the portrait hole.

Waiting at the end of the corridor, they sensed him the instant he appeared. The dementors moved smoothly toward the portrait hole, their delicious prey nearly within reach. Professor McGonagall calmly and powerfully enchanted her best Patronus Spell. “Expecto Patronum!” A magnificent silvery Bengal tiger flowed from her wand out through the portrait hole and leapt toward the dark robed dementors. The dementors turned and fled, emitting a high-pitched screeching noise as they went. McGonagall’s Patronus chased them all the way down seven flights of stairs and into the entrance hall where two more dementors stood guard at the Great Hall. All five fled out through the large front doors as quickly as they could. The majestic silvery cat pursued them through the doors, down the front steps, and out across the lawn in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

Min smiled at McGonagall as she emerged through the portrait hole. “A beautiful beast, if I may say so.”

“Thank you,” said Professor McGonagall, straightening her hair. “We must check on the other houses. Down to the entrance hall.”

Ginny collected the wands from the two unconscious Death Eaters and the whole group of Gryffindors, wands drawn, headed out down the stairs with McGonagall in the lead. Surprisingly they met no one on the way down and there wasn’t anyone in the entrance hall, either. A Death Eater stepped out of the Great Hall into the entrance and immediately more than twenty wands pointed at him. He froze, dumbfounded. Min moved down past him and into the Great Hall, taking the other Death Eater prisoner without a struggle.

A sound suddenly came from the direction of the front doors. Everyone turned, ready to fight.

“OH! ’ello, Professor. Is everyone all right?” Hagrid asked as he lowered his crossbow.

“Oh, Hagrid,” McGonagall said with great relief. “Thank goodness.”

“What’s —”

“There’s no time to explain, Rubeus. Take Min to the Slytherin common room and check on the students. Bring them out into the Great Hall. Neville, take a group of students and check on Ravenclaw house. If everyone there is all right, try to find Madam Pomfrey. If you need help, yell. I’m going to see to the Hufflepuffs in the Hall, and then I will be right up.”

Hagrid nearly died of fright when he opened the door to the dungeons, but Min stepped between him and the dementors. Min sneered viciously at the two dementors, even though he knew they could not see him. He revealed something small and yellow in his hand that gave off a warm, intense glow and he advised them to move along, a feat that Hagrid was amazed to witness. The dementors silkily glided out of the dungeons, through the entrance hall, and out the doors. Hagrid checked on the Slytherins, escorted them into the Great Hall, and then attended to the injured students there. Min went back up the stairs.

* * *

Up on the seventh floor Professor Flitwick, Stuart Ackerley, and a handful of other Ravenclaws were still stuck in their common room, trying desperately to get past two Death Eaters blocking the end of their corridor. Flitwick had already dismissed a dementor with a well-crafted Patronus Charm. They could hear cries for help from Ernie Macmillan and Eleanor Branstone coming from the lower corridors, but couldn’t get out to see what was happening to them.

Professor Flitwick saw both Death Eaters suddenly turn away to look at something behind them. He took the opportunity to take good aim from within his portrait hole and nailed one of the Death Eaters square in the chest, lifting him off his feet and sending his wand flying. The other Death Eater crumpled into the corridor as he kept getting hit with spell after spell from behind.

Neville Longbottom and a number of Gryffindors then stepped into the passageway and smiled at them down the hall.

“Good show, Mr. Longbottom!” exclaimed the very relieved Professor as he stepped out into the hallway. “How are things going? Are there many more left? Have you seen Luna and a group of Ravenclaws?”

“Luna! Where did she go?”

* * *

Ernie Macmillan and his three housemates turned the corner and fled down the long Charms corridor on the third floor. As they reached a familiar door halfway down the hall, the foursome came to a skidding halt. Ernie quickly opened the door to Professor Flitwick’s classroom and scampered inside. The three other Hufflepuffs followed right behind. The two Death Eaters who were pursuing them rounded the far corner just as Eleanor Branstone stepped into the classroom; a red-colored spell ricocheted off the wall next to the door just as she shut it tight.

The two Death Eaters ran down the hall to the door, four dementors gliding silently behind them. As they reached the doorway they each took up a position on either side. “Ready?” The second Death Eater nodded. The first magicked the door open and, as it slammed hard against the wall and rattled on its hinges, he ducked back away from the opening, but no spells flew his way. Sticking his wand around the doorjamb, ready to parry any spells, he peeked inside tentatively. He carefully took one step in when —

GONG!

The heavy end of a floor-standing candelabrum smashed against his forehead, sending him reeling back into the hallway completely unconscious. The door slammed shut and locked. And someone dropped back down onto the floor from atop a high perch within the classroom.

Moments later, scuffling could be heard coming from the adjacent classroom at the top of the hallway, next to the Tee-junction connecting the two corridors. The remaining Death Eater, enraged, began moving toward the top of the corridor.

“Go!” came a voice from inside the room. The four Hufflepuffs streamed out the door of the corner classroom and through the Tee. The furious Death Eater, picking his target out of the bunch, aimed his wand and enchanted, “Avada Kedavra!”

Hannah Abbott was hit fully and her momentum carried her to the top of the intersecting corridors where her body came to rest against the wall. Her eyes were open, staring blankly across at the opposite wall. She was dead.

Ernie and his two classmates, having crossed safely, gaped at the crumpled body in horror. “Hannah …” he muttered in plaintive shock.

Eleanor Branstone seized Ernie by his collar. “Come on!” she implored, pulling him into a run up the hallway. The remaining Hufflepuff bravely skipped backwards up the corridor to give them time to flee around the next corner. He also then turned to run. The Death Eater rounded the corner of the Tee-junction and fired a red bolt at the fleeing student. He was hit squarely in the back and he smashed head-first into the wall.

“NOOO!” After watching another of his friends fall, Ernie’s enraged scream filled the third floor corridors. His hand came back around the corner and fired a spell right at the Death Eater, who barely managed to pirouette out if its way. His return spell ricocheted off the wall right where Ernie Macmillan’s face had been just a moment ago.

The pair of students then dashed into another classroom, but this one had no doors near the back leading to any adjoining rooms. They turned as the Death Eater rushed into the doorway and both Hufflepuffs looked up, shocked to see a cabinet floating above his head. He leveled his wand at Ernie but then also glanced up just in time to see the heavy filing cabinet fall straight down onto him with an enormous CRASH!

The entity responsible appeared out of thin air with a sharp pop.

“Peeves!” Eleanor shouted with joy. “Thanks!”

Peeves hovered over his prey with a deliciously satisfied grin on his face.

Eleanor peered out into the hall. Surprisingly the dementors were nowhere to be seen. The staircase was just down the hallway to their left. They looked at each other and nodded. They tore out of the classroom and headed for the stairs, but as they reached the top, they saw a dementor staring up at them. Another one turned the corner to their left and two more approached by the classroom they had just fled. There was nowhere to go. The dementors blocked all the routes of escape and bore down on them. Their weak Patronus Charms barely formed any smoke, much less take a corporeal form; they were too excited and exhausted to perform the spell properly. Their terrified screams filled the stairwell.

Min came barreling up the stairs in the direction of the yelling and saw the cornered Hufflepuffs. He stopped at the top of the staircase across from them and leered at the dementors with a scowl of utter loathing. “Wretched, vile creatures,” he muttered to himself. He held out his hand with his palm up. Concentrating with his eyes closed, a pea-sized glowing yellow ball appeared in his hand. He gently tossed the brightly colored sphere into the middle of the stairwell where it hovered. The dementors froze; they did not like the harsh light that now illuminated them. Min took a deep breath and enchanted, “Lumos Solem!”

The glow of the yellow sphere began to intensify exponentially. Its corona was growing larger and it was becoming much too hot to be in the same space. Ernie and Eleanor shut their eyes and turned away from the sun-like ball as the air immediately around the tiny sphere boiled fiercely. The dementors quickly moved away from the light. But before they could escape, it exploded in a brilliant, blinding flash of heat and light. The ball of light rapidly lost its luminescence and smoldered as it vanished from sight. Min collapsed onto one knee, and put his hand down to prevent himself from falling further. He was dizzy and short of breath.

Ernie looked around tentatively. The dementors were gone; all that remained were ghostly scorch marks against the walls where the dementors had last been. Eleanor looked at her arms and Ernie’s face; they were both sunburned on the parts that had been exposed to the ball of light.

* * *

Up in the corridors between the towers, Luna and her charges were still running as fast as they could, fleeing the pursuing Death Eaters. They turned another corner just below a tower entrance only to find themselves in a long corridor with a door at its end. Luna sprinted down it and tried the doorknob, but no luck. “Alohomora,” she said with a wave of her wand, but to no effect. They all looked back as the Death Eaters found them trapped at the end of the hallway. As they slowed from their run, one of the Death Eaters smiled in amusement. Luna sent spell after spell up the hall, but Nott, the lead Death Eater, expertly parried them aside with his wand.

As they raised their wands to Stun the collection of students one of the first years pointed beyond their pursuers and let go a blood-curdling scream. The three Death Eaters were compelled to turn and, to their own horror, they saw a dementor coming straight at them. “No! Not us,” one shouted. “No, you fool, the students!” another instructed, trying a spell to regain control of the wayward creature. But to no avail. One last attempt at a Patronus Spell had no effect on the dementor. All three felt their energy draining away from them, and they slowly sank to the floor unconscious.

But the Ravenclaws were hardly relieved. The dementor kept moving forward. The girl who had shrieked so loudly before now emitted a hoarse, barely whispered scream as she sank against the door and pushed with her feet, desperately willing the locked door to open. Luna tried her best to stop the dementor.

“Expecto Patronum, Expecto Patronum!” she said, waving her wand furiously.

Neville then came around the far corner, raised his wand, and enchanted, “Deletrius!” The dementor vanished with a poof.

“Neville!” shouted Luna. “You know how to dismiss a dementor?” she asked disbelievingly.

“Not exactly,” Neville replied with a wry smile. “Grab a bad guy and follow me,” he instructed as he took one of the unconscious Death Eaters by the collar and dragged him back around the corner into a nearby storage room.

The smaller students struggled to follow, pulling the two heavy, unconscious wizards into the room. Neville disarmed each of the Death Eaters and he and Luna summoned ropes to bind the three tightly.

One of the second years spoke up. “You used a Dismissing Charm on the dementor, not a Patronus Charm, didn’t you? So the dementor was just an apparition!”

“Exactly.”

“But how did you —”

“I put them to sleep,” Neville explained. “They were so busy trying to fight the non-existent dementor with a Patronus Charm that they didn’t think to block a Sleeping Spell. Come on, let’s get back to the others.” The troupe happily followed him back to the central staircase.

* * *

Dobby emerged from the kitchens to see how things were going. Badly shocked students were gathering in the Great Hall. Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Hagrid were rushing around trying to get the injured students to the infirmary and taking a head-count. Seven students were dead and twenty-two were injured, six seriously. Missing were Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, three Gryffindors (Harry, Ron, and Hermione), and three Slytherins (Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy). What appeared to be the remains of Professor Snape were found in the entrance hall. And the corpse of a large black and brown spotted dog lay at the feet of a suit of armor next to the entrance doors. Even though they had beaten back the attack, all in all, it had been a terrible night at the school.

But it got much worse when Dobby told them what he had seen and, more specifically, what he had heard. Unfortunately Dobby seemed more shaken than the students, so getting anything useful out of him took a good deal of patience and persistence.

“Dobby, you’re safe,” explained Min. “The Death Eaters are either captured or dead. There is no one left here who can hurt you.”

Dobby tried to speak but his body was shaking so violently his teeth were chattering.

Ginny Weasley gave Dobby some chocolate, which his chattering teeth chewed rather sloppily. This seemed to help somewhat, but an even more helpful gesture was what she said next. “Please, Dobby. We need your help. Do you know what happened to Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Professor Dumbledore?”

Those four words, “We need your help,” gave Dobby a sense of his importance. He had enough strength to put together his first comprehensible sentence.

“Mas- Master took Harry Potter and his friends,” he began, sniffling at the thought of Harry being taken away.

“Did you see Professor Dumbledore?” asked Min. Dobby nodded and started trembling again. “Dobby; Dobby, look at me,” said Min. “Did they take Professor Dumbledore too?” Dobby shook his head. The small group gathered around the house-elf was relieved. “So, Professor Dumbledore is still around here somewhere? Hiding, perhaps?”

Dobby’s eyes went wider, which seemed quite impossible to those looking on. And Dobby explained, “No, Professor Dumbledore not taken, he left with them.”

“He went with them?” asked Professor McGonagall. “What do you mean? He went … willingly?”

Dobby nodded.

“But, he must have had some plan, some reason for …” Neville started.

And Dobby nodded again, tears filling his eyes.

Students continued filling the Great Hall. Most of the Hufflepuffs were already there. Ernie Macmillan was pacing back and forth with his arms folded and a scowl firmly attached to his face.

Eleanor Branstone suddenly spotted something laying on the mantel. She picked up the light wooden object and asked, “Whose is this?”

“That’s Harry’s wand,” said Neville. “They must have left through here.” Neville grabbed a handful of Floo powder from the vessel sitting on the mantel and threw it into the still-burning fireplace, but instead of igniting, the powder just scattered on the stones like a fistful of dirt. Eleanor then handed Harry’s wand to him.

Turning back to the conversation, Ginny asked, “Why, Dobby? Why did Professor Dumbledore leave with them?”

Dobby started to lose it again. He began to say, “P- P- Professor —” but then began beating his head violently against the floor four, five, six times before Ginny caught him by his sweater and stopped his self-punishment. Dobby had stopped hurting himself, but started wailing instead. Min rolled his eyes.

Ginny lost her patience as well, grabbed Dobby firmly by both shoulders, and shook him hard. The house-elf was taken by surprise. Other than the occasional kick he couldn’t remember the last time someone took to punishing him personally. His crying stopped, but he still sobbed. Between sobs Dobby was able to croak out, “He wants to join with Harry Potter at the Ministry.”

“What?” said McGonagall forcefully. “Dumbledore wants to join with Harry? Why? How?”

“Nooo,” Dobby whispered, “not Headmaster, Him.”

There was a pause. Hagrid was the first to say it. “Voldemort?”

Half the Great Hall winced when he uttered the name. Dobby clapped his hands over his ears in terror. Even Hagrid was surprised that he said it.

“Who told you this?” asked Min.

“My former Master told it to Professor Sn-, Professor Sn-” said Dobby, unable to finish the sentence. Min nodded to Dobby.

“But why would Harry join You-Know-Who?” asked Neville curiously.

“I think he means merge with, Neville,” Min guessed. “Join into one being.”

Dobby nodded.

“Oh, my,” sighed McGonagall, sinking into a puddle on the floor.

Dobby was now calm enough to continue recounting what Lucius Malfoy had said to Snape. Lucius explained that Voldemort and his Death Eaters had taken the Ministry building and were holding most of the employees as prisoners. They had begun preparing a room for the “joining” and had sealed off the rest of the building. Malfoy had explained the inevitability of it all to Snape: Voldemort’s new rise to power, the gathering of Death Eaters, even Dumbledore’s betrayal. But Snape had steadfastly refused to go back to his old Master. So Lucius turned the dogs loose on Snape. Facing three Death Eaters and four dogs, he didn’t stand a chance. Both Malfoys had stood there and watched. Dobby had, unfortunately, also witnessed the entire gruesome dismemberment. He was frozen, unable to turn away from the horror.

At that Dobby’s eyes began to water once more, but instead of crying, he just fainted.

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